Secrets and Lies
by Mike Leigh
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brenda Blethyn, Claire Rushbrook, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Phyllis Logan, Timothy SpallDirector: Mike Leigh
Cinematographer: Dick Pope
Writer: Mike Leigh
Editor: Jon Gregory
Producer: Simon Channing Williams
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 136 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Secrets and Lies
Movie Review: Kitchen-sink comedy/drama with heart
Summary: 4 Stars
Mike Leigh's film won Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival. A young black woman decides to find her birth-mother only to discover her mother is white, just one among many of the SECRETS & LIES of this tale. A first-rate cast delivers knock-out performances. A bit on the long side, the film has both drama and comical moments, with a healthy helping of tenderness. The DVD has a good quality transfer of the widescreen original but no bonus features apart from the trailer (and a few other trailers). A first-rate comedy/drama with heart!
Summary of Secrets and Lies
After her adoptive parents die, a young black woman seeks out her natural birth mother, only to discover her mother is white, thus setting in motion the revelation of a whole series of secrets and lies.If a film fan had never heard of director Mike Leigh, one might explain him as a British Woody Allen. Not that Leigh's films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life--funny, outlandish, and biting. His films share a real immediacy with Allen's work: they feel as if they are happening now. Leigh works with actors--real actors--on ideas and language. There is no script at the start (and sometimes not at the end). Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mother's identity. She will find it's Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures we've seen in film. She's also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most lovable. Timothy Spall is Cynthia's brother, a giant man full of love who is being slowly defeated by his fastidious wife (Phyllis Logan).
There is a great exuberance of life in Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme D'Or and best actress (Blethyn) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival--not Zorba-type life but the little battles fought and won every day. Leigh's honest interpretation of daily life is usually found only on the stage. Secrets & Lies is more realistic than a stage production, however, especially when Leigh shows us uninterrupted scenes. Critic David Denby states that Leigh has "made an Ingmar Bergman film without an instant of heaviness or pretension." If that sounds like your cup of tea, see Secrets & Lies. --Doug Thomas
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